Top 10 Applications to Build a New Business Foundation
In this article, we’re going to touch base on the top ten applications we find useful in building a new business foundation. Obviously, these will change significantly as we grow and as we expand, but for now we feel like we have a solid foundation and think we can help other small businesses and entrepreneurs skip the “trial-and-error” stage and jump right into getting started in building their foundation. Some of these options may or may not relate to you and your needs, but we hope we can help you find two to three applications that will help elevate your brand and jumpstart your business.
10.) CRM – HoneyBook
Honeybook has a lot of key functionalities from writing contracts, proposals, and tracking workflows. You can also create and embed contact forms on your website. We currently use HoneyBook as it is an affordable option for smaller businesses to easily manage and track workflows from leads. HoneyBook also integrates payments to your bank account and tracks your sales. Honeybook also integrates your workflows with a Calendar and allows email automations. If you need an affordable option to track workflows and sales, we highly recommend HoneyBook.
9.) Project Management – Trello
For Project Management we highly recommend starting out with using Trello. Trello is an easy-to-use and simplistic style project management system. You can create categories and statuses of projects. Easily organize your tasks in a board like fashion with Trello.
8.) Website Hosting – BlueHost
Need an affordable hosting plan for the website you just built? We recommend using BlueHost when first starting out. BlueHost handles all the server side issues for you. All you have to do is register your domain and connect the DNS settings to point the hosting server to your website. BlueHost offers many different hosting plans and also allows you to purchase domains and domain protection plans. You can check them out here.
7.) eCommerce Website – Shopify
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform to set up an eCommerce website, we highly recommend checking out Shopify. Shopify has many different themes, customization settings, and is super cost efficient. Many larger eCommerce websites still use Shopify to this day. We build any strictly eCommerce websites through shopify for all of our clients and they seem to love it! Check out Shopify’s options here.
6.) Password Management – LastPass
Overtime, you’re going to have many different logins to many different platforms. You’re going to want to keep track of them in a secure fashion. LastPass is free and allows you to safely store your passwords. Never lose your passwords again with LastPass!
5.) Website Hosting – WPEngine
Although there are many different hosting options that may be more cost efficient, if you’re using WordPress as your website builder, WPEngine is the best way to go. Bluehost also works for WordPress, but WPEngine has much more flexibility accessing backend tools such as FTP servers, phpMyAdmin, and much more! Check out WPEngine’s pricing and plans!
4.) Email System – Google Workspace
Google Workspace is the perfect platform to create company emails for newer companies. You’ll have access to pretty much all google products depending on the plan you choose. It’s a very cost efficient way to keep track of files, use spreadsheets, and have your own company emails with your domain.
3.) Website Builder – WordPress
For all websites that aren’t strictly eCommerce or that integrate both services and products we use WordPress. WordPress is the world’s most popular and most used website builder. WordPress has many themes, plugins, and you can pretty much customize any functionality you wish to code or integrate. We highly recommend using WordPress as your website building platform. You can get started on WordPress here.
2.) Accounting Software Package – Quickbooks
Quickbooks is not cost efficient for a newer company, but does have many different capabilities that are useful to your business. You can track payroll, taxes, sales, and expenses using Quickbooks. This will help you keep track of your finances and help you make sure you’re not losing money. You can check out Quickbooks here.
1.) CRM – Hubspot
Hubspot is our number one on this list. Although we do not currently use hubspot we will be eventually. Hubspot can be a little pricey, but if your business is in the right stage, it is 100% worth the investment. The capabilities from tracking contracts, to creating pop-up forms, to email marketing, Hubspot can basically do everything marketing related. To learn more about Hubspot, you can visit their website here.
Honorable Mentions:
Email Marketing – MailChimp
MailChimp is very useful for email marketing and creating pop-up forms. If you want a platform with Hubspot-like capabilities, MailChimp would be the way to go. It is a cheaper option for smaller businesses to get started in that field. Check out MailChimp’s pricing tiers here.
Project Management – Asana
Asana is a project management system that’s a little more complex than Trello. I preferably prefer Asana, but the rest of Innovative Society likes the simplicity of Trello over the extra benefits that Asana provides. Asana allows you to create different projects, teams, create insights, and goals. For a larger team, Asana is definitely the way to go. Check out Asana here.
SEO Management – SEMRush
SEMRush is a very very helpful tool to help track SEO analytically and boost SEO stats. SEMRush can be pricey, but is a very helpful tool. You can track keywords, get keyword ratings, track your keyword ratings, track your competitor’s keyword ratings, and much more. Anybody who purchases our SEO services will have their domain connected to our SEMRush account so that we can help your SEO grow. Check out SEMRush’s pricing here.
Closing Remarks:
For more information on these tools or other tools that we use, please check out our other articles and our podcast! We hope you found some of these tools useful and look forward to continuing to provide information to help elevate your brand and business.
